Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Central Arkansas

Conway, AR · Public · Bachelor-granting · 7,762 undergrads · 89% admitted

Do students finish?
54% complete

A large share of students do not finish; the cost is the same whether or not you graduate.

What does it cost?
$25,029/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$100,116 over four years if you finish on time.

What former students go on to earn

The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.

$45,938 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $28,642 median $45,938 75th pct $65,378

68% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.

Your major matters more than your school

The school-wide figure above blends every major together — but pay varies enormously by program. Pick a degree level (and search your major) to compare like-for-like.

Read these on their own terms. Program pay is measured 1 year after completing the program (early career, graduates only) — not the same as the school-wide number above, which is 10 years after a student first enrolled. Don't compare a program figure to the school figure; use the programs to compare majors to each other.

35 Bachelor's programs · $16,581 to $56,174 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $56,174 $19,250
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $51,827 $22,079
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $49,361 $21,750
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $48,462 $21,500
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $45,080 $16,798
Mathematics.Bachelor's $42,490 $16,711
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $41,417 $18,150
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $39,792 $23,945
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $36,389 $16,896
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $36,173 $18,307
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $35,720 $24,227
Music.Bachelor's $35,220 $25,500
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $32,164
Marketing.Bachelor's $31,457 $19,557
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $31,149 $20,500
Journalism.Bachelor's $30,505 $21,562
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations.Bachelor's $29,826
Chemistry.Bachelor's $29,438 $20,500
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $28,717 $25,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $28,531 $19,314
Criminology.Bachelor's $27,665 $19,414
Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services.Bachelor's $27,609 $18,775
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $27,087 $16,000
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $26,820 $25,000
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $25,699 $22,500
Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General.Bachelor's $25,502 $28,446
Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $25,293 $25,000
Sociology.Bachelor's $25,262 $23,505
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $24,986
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $24,926 $21,351
Biology, General.Bachelor's $23,535 $20,756
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $23,000 $19,500
History.Bachelor's $20,875 $25,250
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $20,766 $24,995
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $16,581

The Dept. of Education omits programs with too few graduates (to protect privacy), so not every major appears. Pay is a median for federally-aided graduates. Full program detail on the official Scorecard.

Typical federal loan debt
$13,000
28% of one year's typical earnings here

This counts federal student loans only — not private loans, Parent PLUS loans, or family savings, so the true cost of borrowing is usually higher. And because students who drop out borrow less, a school where many students don't finish can show a deceptively low debt figure — read it next to the completion rate above.

What these numbers are — and are not

Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.

→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major — see the by-major breakdown above (48 programs at this school).

Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website